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Apollon Temple |
Didyma's ancient
ruins are 20 kilometres (32 miles) from Miletos,
in the parish of Hisar, which is in the district
of Didim, a part of the province of Aydin.
Didyma, is not however an ancient city. It was a
sacred place of worship. Didyma's fame rests on
the magnificant Temple of Apollo, a building of
awesome scale whose proportions seem more in
keeping with the gods than man. Building works
in the name of Apollo were started in the eighth
or seventh centuries BC. For a hundred years
during the Archaic period the Temple was
controlled by the Branchids, a powerful family
of priests, and it was under their direction
that the Temple rose to fame. In the 6th century
BC, under the Branchids, in the first half of
the Ionian period, the Temple at Didyma enjoyed
golden age and was greatly expanded in size. But
then came the Persians who attacked the area in
494 BC and destroyed the Temple. Alexander the
Great helped in the rebuilding and the remains
we see today are Hellenistic, dating from his
times. In the temple's reconstruction the
original foundations were used but the size of
the building was greatly increased. The decline
of Didyma began in the third century BC. In the
year 395 AD the Emperor Theodosius decreed that
all soothsayers and their like were prohibited.
This was a great blow to the Temple. Nature also
played its part. In the second century BC, an
earthquake struck destroying some of the Sacred
Road and the area of worship to Artemis.
Christianity was first introduced to Didyma in
the fourth century AD. During the 5th and 6th
centuries AD the Temple area was converted into
a church. The final plan for the Temple was
never fully accomplished. The whole area was
devastated by another earthquake, that of the
year 1493, and the site was abondoned. At the
end on the 19th century new immigrants settled
and gave their home the name "Yoran". From 1922
onwards it was settled by Greeks and Bulgarians.
The small town they founded was called
Yenihisar. Later this was changed to become the
Didim today.
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